this is bbc news, i'm james reynolds. our top stories: another record jump in coronavirus cases in the united states. we report from arizona, where infections are surging and doctors have to make tough decisions. you have to pick and choose who gets that life—saving intervention, that is a horrible situation to be in, i have never had to be in that situation. britain's prime minister appears in a mask for the first time in public, hinting at a tightening of the rules. turkey's president signs a decree converting one of the world's most iconic buildings, istanbul's hagia sophia, back into a mosque. amazon says an email asking employees to remove tiktok from their mobile devices was sent in error. and on the 80th anniversary of the start of the battle of britain, the schoolgirl who helped the raf beat the luftwaffe.

the world health organization has reported a record daily total of global coronavirus infections. nowhere has been hit harder than the united states. the country's top health official for infectious diseases now says some us states should delay ending their lockdowns. this graph shows the number of daily cases since the start of the pandemic. the number had been falling towards the end of last month, but now there's a steep rise, topping 60,000 in recent days — that's the highest single—day tallies for any country since the pandemic began. the states in darker blue have had the most cases per head of population in the last week, with the worst—hit being south carolina,

with an average of 305 daily cases per million people, louisiana with 321, and florida with 423. but the state with the most cases is arizona, from where our correspondent, sophie long reports. music plays. when the governor of arizona lifted the state's stay—at—home order, people partied, pre—pandemic style. it was a joke to us. we were just like, "yeah, covid's fake news." days later, many woke up to what will probably be the worst hangover of their lives. never imagined in my life i'd be in a hospital, you know, on a breathing, oxygen tube. and i felt like i was going to die. the bars and nightclubs have now been shut down again. the pumping music replaced by an eerie silence. but the damage has been done. at the beginning of the pandemic, some hoped

the summer heat might help slow the infection rate. well, if you want proof that that is not happening, it's here. it's currently around 44 celsius in phoenix. the temperature is rising, and so are the number of confirmed covid cases — at an alarming rate. arizona is now the coronavirus hotspot, not just for the united states, but for the world. and yet people here are still queueing many hours for tests and waiting many days for the results. they're getting results back in eight days. well, eight days, that's not actionable information. you can't use that information any more. if the person was infected with covid—i9, you've missed your opportunity to intervene and get them into isolation so they don't infect their family members and co—workers. those who have lost loved ones in this sudden surge find ways to express their grief and their anger. i don't want my father to just be another number. the reason why people

are getting sick and numbers are skyrocketing here, and we are number one not only in the entire country, but the entire world, is not because of lack of individual responsibility. it's because of lack of leadership. and it's the tired hearts of medical staff that are breaking, as they're forced to make decisions they hoped they never would. sometimes you just have to go into crisis mode, and what that means is basically having to triage, like in a military setting, having to triage who gets to get that resource and who doesn't. but you have very limited resources and you know a bunch of sick patients need it, you have to pick and choose who gets that life—saving intervention. that's a horrible situation to be in. i've never had to be in that situation. some hospitals here are now preparing to operate at up to 150% capacity — an indication that arizona is expected to continue to be the epicentre of this explosion of new cases, and the impact on people across the state could get even worse.

we can now speak to saskia popescu who is a hospital epidemiologist and infection preventionist, and serves on the federation of american scientists‘ coronavirus task force. she's in phoenix, arizona. doctor saskia popescu, why do you get this bad in arizona? we really reopened so quickly and so really reopened so quickly and so early, unfortunately arizona was one of the last states to do closing measures in one of the first reopened, and u nfortu nately now the first reopened, and unfortunately now what we are seeing is hospital that 90% capacity, one out of every five patients hospitalised has coronavirus positive, and resulting in hospitalisation, but also today actually the city morgue reported they are 9796 city morgue reported they are 97% full, so so much of this is premature opening, rapid reopening and people rushing out to go to bars and restau ra nts out to go to bars and restaurants as if — you have seen some of those videos. a lot of the messaging coming from leadership both national and state is that we were passed coronavirus, and that

really gives people not a lot of motivation really to maintain infection control measures. from what i have red about restrictions or lack of restrictions in arizona, restau ra nts a nd restrictions in arizona, restaurants and casinos have remained open. nabs gymnasiums we re remained open. nabs gymnasiums were close, was there any scientific logic for giving some businesses open another‘s close 7 some businesses open another‘s close? i can't speak to the casinos because that didn't really make a lot of sense from an epidemiological perspective. ba rs an epidemiological perspective. bars are high risk, so closing those was important and as of yesterday the government —— governor did close restaurants to 50% capacity, which is helpful but he also suggested people eat outside when it is supposed to hit 120 degrees outside this weekend, that is difficult. jim ‘s ra concern but there are also concerns about mega churches, so i am hoping he will move in that direction as well or look at stay—at—home orders in the next couple of weeks. what about testing and contact tracing, how is that going? i know that

we are how is that going? i know that we a re really how is that going? i know that we are really struggling right now with keeping up with the demand, because people are going out to get tested but u nfortu nately we a re going out to get tested but unfortunately we are not seeing that they can get tested if they are not symptomatically not involved in an exposure. so the goal is to expand that, i know the governor is working towards that because we want people to get tested if they wa nt to people to get tested if they want to be, but there is also a backlog which means some people are waiting for — eight days for the testing, and on top of that we can only suck contact tracing when the test comes back. right now i know they are working to train contact traitors, but that can take a couple of weeks, so there is a delay. you mention hospital capacity, telling —— can you tell us more? right now they are showing 80— 90% capacity, except they are full except for about 10%. there is not a lot of wiggle room, which means they're only about icu beds in they're only about icu beds in the state, which means we are struggling, we are redlining, a

lot of hospitals are surging and having to do prices get rich as you heard in that previous video means triaging. a lot of hospitals are looking at, how do we extend the volume of beds we had, butjust because you have beds doesn't mean you have workers to staff them. we need workers and physicians and that is a problem right now because nurses and physicians are part of the community and the community is where we are seeing cases. as they get sick out in the community, how do we starve these hospitals with the growing capacity? —— staff. doctor saskia popescu, thank you so much. borisjohnson says he may have to tighten the rules on face coverings in england, encouraging their use in confined spaces, like shops. at the moment masks are only mandatory on public transport, but the british prime minister says the scientific advice on masks has now shifted. he also urged people to go back to work if they can, instead of working from home. 0ur science editor, david shukman has the story. the message is obvious, when the prime minister is pictured in a mask.

it means you can expect new rules in england for where you have to cover your face — no longerjust on public transport. we need to be stricter in insisting that people wear face coverings in confined places. we're looking at ways of making sure that people really do have face coverings in shops, for instance, where, you know, there is a risk of transmission. hello! the pressure has been building for a change. the chancellor, rishi sunak, was widely criticised for not covering his face earlier in the week at this photo opportunity. and scotland is already going further than the rest of the uk by requiring masks to be worn in shops right now. i think it reminds people that they need to be taking precautions. i think it's a good thing because it protects people. yeah, of course, yeah. anything that stops this virus is a good idea.

the reason is that anyone infected can spread the virus with coughs, sneezes or even by speaking loudly. the risk is greatest indoors, especially in crowded spaces with bad ventilation. that's where scientists say that face coverings can make a difference. those droplets are caught by the mask, and so, most of the droplets then don't go on to infect other people around me. now, some of the droplets might escape through the sides of the mask, but then they would fall down to the area around me. the latest figures show that masks now have to be worn everywhere in public in as many as 71 different countries. they are becoming more widely accepted. it's estimated that in italy, 80% of people now wear them, in the us, 70%, and in spain, 65%, while in the uk, the figure is 25%, though that may

now be a bit higher since that data was gathered. and a new voice has entered the debate. with tourist destinations struggling, like the almost empty amalfi coast in italy, the travel industry now says that face coverings should be mandatory, whatever different governments may think about that. the use of face masks should not be political. there should not be stigma around it. it is just the way we go forward, to be able to move around freely while protecting others and also protecting ourselves. it's a big step to order face coverings to be worn beyond public transport, but as we learn more about how easily the virus can spread, masks are becoming part of the new normal in more aspects of our lives. let's bring you some breaking news now, within the past few minutes president trump has

commuted the prison sentence for his friend and advisor roger stone. mr stone had scheduled to report by tuesday toa scheduled to report by tuesday to a federal prison in georgia to a federal prison in georgia to begin serving a sentence of three years and four months for lying under oath to us lawmakers investigating russian interference on the 2016 us election. the white house said mr stone would be put at serious risk if he had gone to prison. we will get reaction from the united states within the next hour. president erdogan of turkey has signed a controversial decree turning one of the world's most historic buildings, the hagia or aya sophia, back into a mosque. the unesco world heritage site was originally built in the sixth century as a byzantine christian cathedral. the ottoman empire converted it into a mosque in the 15th century. it finally became a museum in the early 20th century. from istanbul, 0rla guerin reports. change is coming to hagia sophia — jewel of the byzantine empire, a great monument to christianity conquered

by the ottomans, later a museum bearing testimony to layers of history. speaking turkish. but president erdogan, who presents himself as a modern—day conqueror, has announced a new chapter. "anyone who doesn't like it," he says — and plenty abroad don't — "is attacking turkey's sovereignty." under its soaring golden dome, hagia sophia will now become a mosque, as in 0ttoman days. but turkey says christian emblems, like mosaics of the virgin mary, will remain, and everyone will be welcome. making changes here is profoundly symbolic. it was kemal ataturk, founder of modern turkey, who decreed that hagia sophia should be a museum. now president erdogan

is taking one more step to dismantle ataturk‘s secular legacy and remold turkey according to his vision. and that's a vision that alarms the turkish nobel laureate 0rhan pamuk, who has gazed lovingly at hagia sophia from his balcony for the past 25 years. turks are proud to be a secular muslim nation. now, converting hagia sophia into a mosque will take away that pride from the nation. there are millions of secular turks like me who are crying against this, but their voices are not heard because we don't have enough free speech and democracy in turkey, unfortunately, any more. back at hagia sophia, british tourists visiting today were unconcerned by the change. that's just part of the history of turkey, and it's up to the turkish government, i think. i'd visit it whether it's a mosque or a museum. it doesn't bother me. and you think it's for the turks to decide? absolutely, absolutely.

reclaiming hagia sophia plays well with the turkish leader's base, and distracts from the economic damage done by covid—19. but many in the international community say it belongs to humanity, and should have been left unchanged. stay with us on bbc news, still to come: the us has recorded another record jump in coronavirus cases with 65,000 confirmed in a single day. written's prime minister appears in market square the first time in public, hinting at a tightening of the rules. —— appears in a mask in public. the online retailer amazon says an e—mail sent to its employees asking them to remove tiktok from their mobile devices was sent in error. the app is owned by a chinese company and has come under scrutiny because of fears it could share data with china. with me is our reporter freya cole. almost feel like to do this

properly i almost feel like to do this properly we should be doing this via tiktok videos and getting everybody to look at it online. we're going to do it the old—fashioned online. we're going to do it the old —fashioned way, online. we're going to do it the old—fashioned way, talking face—to—face. let's do that. amazon says its e—mail was a mistake. my question is, reallyis on backtrack roughly five hours after that initial e—mail was sent. a company spokesperson said it was an error and to quote, there is no change in the company ‘s policies right now in regard to tiktok. to give it a little bit of context. that e—mail was sent out to amazon staff saying their work and security, security concerns and the app needed be deleted from any mobile phone which had access to amazon e—mails. amazon is now saying that is a mistake. as to how that mistakes happen, we are yet to know. i guess, there is a wide appointed that shows the sensitivities of a chinese firm and the united states. tiktok is a video sharing app which is owned by

bitedance, the world's largest start—up, chinese owned company. there has always been paranoia about the app and this year has been several issues have come up with lawmakers concerned that data could be shared with the chinese government. how has tiktok respondedtiktok, and in this regard it should be made clear that it has always tried to distance itself from any privacy concerns says it doesn't understand amazon's concerns and remains open to dialogue with amazon executives to find flesh out any issues. thank you so much. supporters of the opposition workers‘ party in singapore have been celebrating in the streets, after achieving unprecedented success in friday's general election. the party took ten out of 93 seats. the others were won by the people's action party, which has governed singapore for decades. here's the bbc‘s sharanjit leyl. iam in iamina i am in a constituency that is a stronghold for the opposition

party and for the last couple of hours, the people he had been celebrating as you can hear there. essentially, they have been celebrating and you would really think they have had a big win but in actuality couldn't be further from the truth. they've actually lost. but in singapore where there has only ever been a single party that has ruled and that is the people's action party, the fact that the opposition workers party picked up ten seats is actually a historic win since independence. this is going to prompt a lot of soul searching for the ruling pap. any sort of little shifts in how they do tend to result in changes of policy et cetera. as you say, this is the pandemic election. it has been dubbed the pandemic election. the economy has been a chief worry for many people. singapore is a very open economy and free

trade oriented. and you know, the pandemic and the various lock bounce here as well as in the rest of the world has really impacted it very badly. they are expecting some of the worst voter turnout since independence. it was really interesting as well. we are right in the midst of this, it isa right in the midst of this, it is a city with really strict rules but we have been seeing in the last couple of hours there has been lots of flouting of the social distancing rules because of course, we are right in the middle of pandemic. so potentially, this could cost them but it's interesting to see the celebration going on. it's unusual in the city. she is doing an amazing job there to keep her concentration. ghislaine maxwell, the former ex—girlfriend ofjeffrey epstein have strongly denied charges she helped him exploit girls as young as 1a. and even participated in the abyss. hellos have requested a release from prison. 0ur correspondent

has more. this court filing by ghislaine maxwell's attorney comes ahead of a court hearing plan for tuesday were a federal judge will decide whether she can be released from prison pending trial. this is really an argument against the government's position that a flight government's position that a flight risk. they say she is not a fight risk, that she hasn't left the united states in the past year and in fact, after jeffrey in the past year and in fact, afterjeffrey epstein's arrest, she had actually reached out to prosecutors through her counsel. she says instead, she should be released on bail with a bond of $5 million, that she would surrender her travel documents and not leave the new york area. and that she would also agree to home confinement with electronic gps monitoring. we know prosecutors are going to be arguing strongly that she should remain in custody given the horrendous crimes she faces

and the lengthy amount of present time if convicted along with the three passports she has and her wealth. another interesting part of this court filing was that it really gave an insight into the defence's strategy. what they said he was that maxwell has been wrongfully substituted for the deceased, epstein. they say she is notjeffrey deceased, epstein. they say she is not jeffrey epstein deceased, epstein. they say she is notjeffrey epstein and in fa ct is notjeffrey epstein and in fact she hadn't been in touch with him for more f. —— his death. hundreds of people have gathered to pay their respects at the funeral of dame vera lynn, who died last month at the age of 103. the singer's cortege was accompanied by a battle of britain flypast as it travelled through her home village in east sussex. representatives from the royal british legion stood with flags as they waited to honour dame vera. there was also a private service at the crematorium chapel which included music from the royal marines. it's emerged a schoolgirl from london had a hand

in the raf‘s victory in the battle of britain. she helped improve the firepower of the airforce's new fighters, the spitfire and the hurricane, which were key to defeating the german luftwaffe. sophie raworth explains. way up in the sky, there are all kinds of german fighters that are going to get the flashing of their lives. july, 1940. in nazi germany is beginning the first of many bombing raids in what became known as the battle of britain. at the raf's known as the battle of britain. at the raf‘s pilots managed to fight off the luftwaffe and defend these shores in their spitfires and hurricanes. it is the most famous plane from world war ii, it played a crucial role in the battle of britain. but what we didn't know until now was the role that a 13—year—old girl this

new generation of fighter plane had originally been designed with just four machine—guns. but this man, captain fred hill, a scientific officer in the air ministry became convinced that four guns would not be enough. each planet needed eight. he faced stiff opposition, most thought eight guns would be too many, impossible to fit onto the planes. but captain hill convinced he was right. he turned to an unlikely person for help, his 13—year—old daughter, hazel. a talented mathematician. together, around the kitchen table, they worked through the night on complex calculations to prove that eight guns firing at least a thousand was essential for success. they talk about burning the midnight oil, coming into the office late after everybody has gone to carry out further calculations and borrow bits of equipment to carry out experiments, more or less of their own back working

very long hours because they we re very very long hours because they were very dedicated to these things. and people took the work home. hazeltold her things. and people took the work home. hazel told her sons about her role when they were growing up. this amazing history, it hangs on so fine a friend. if you got the calculations wrong, because she had been asked to help and the decision had not been made to go with eight guns, who knows what would've happened ? go with eight guns, who knows what would've happened? graph presented to be a ministry 1934 was the result of hazel‘s calculations. with eight guns firing, the fighters typically had just a couple of seconds to hit their target before pulling away. they are to get in incredibly close to the enemy planes, just 250 yards away to stand a chance of shooting them down. hazel‘s calculations meant the government changed its mind. the battle of britain proved to be a turning point in the war. it was the bravery and success of the pilots that made victory possible, but without the support of many others, the battle may not have been won.

what a great inspiration for young people today, young girls in particular. that can look upon someone in particular. that can look upon someone like hazel in the early 1930s making such an important contribution. 80 yea rs important contribution. 80 years after the important contribution. 80 yea rs after the battle important contribution. 80 years after the battle of britain, hazel hill is finally getting the public recognition she deserves. just to remind of the breaking news this hour — president trump has commuted the prison sentence for his friend and advisor roger stone. mr stone had been scheduled to report by tuesday to a federal prison in georgia, to begin serving a sentence of three years and four months for lying under oath to us lawmakers investigating russian interference in the 2016 us election. the white house said mr stone would have been put at serious risk if he had gone to prison. there is some reaction coming in. when reaction is from the house intelligence chairman, adam schiff, democratic condiment. he said, committing

the sentence of stone, chronically late and obstructed the investigation to protect trump himself is the most offensive to the rule of law and principles of justice. offensive to the rule of law and principles ofjustice. bye for now. hello. if you were hoping to stay dry during friday, in many parts of the uk, the weather had a different idea. there were some heavy downpours to be dodged, and actually, over the last few days, you can see on the satellite picture all these different clumps of cloud that have worked through, bringing outbreaks of rain. but now, a gap appearing between the clouds. an area of high pressure building its way just in time for the weekend. that means it is looking dry for the vast majority. there will be some areas of patchy cloud with one or two showers, but most places will be fine with some spells of sunshine. saturday morning getting off to a rather chilly start. some spots down in single digits, but through the day, we're looking at long spells of sunshine.

i think we'll see a bit of patchy clouds tending to bubble up as the day wears on. look closely, there may be one or two showers in northwest england, northern ireland and scotland. even in these areas, the majority will stay dry. a noticeable west or northwesterly breeze. temperature is just a touch below par for this time of year, but in the sunshine, it won't feel too bad, 17—21 celsius. a bit of rain will skip across 0rkney and shetland during saturday night. otherwise, it's dry with clear spells into the early hours of sunday. another rather cool start on sunday morning, but with our area of high pressure still in charge sunday, it going to be another dry day for most. the high pressure centre down to the south, where we'll have the best of the sunshine. more cloud further north, and behind me, you can see this frontal system. that will introduce something of a change very late in the day to northern ireland and western scotland. some splashes of rain getting in here by the very end of the afternoon, but for most, it stays dry. it's a warmer day on sunday as well. 19 degrees for glasgow, 23, maybe 24 down towards the south and the southeast of england. 0ur area of high pressure tries to hold on into monday,

but i think this frontal system will make some progress progress southeastwards. bringing some splashes of rain on and off, the rain quite showery, quite sporadic in nature. there will be some dry spells as well. towards the southeast of england, it should stay dry for a good part of the day. still warmer here, but slightly cooler and fresher further north and west. through the week ahead, there is going to be a lot of dry weather. there'll be some spells of sunshine, the warmest weather down towards the south. some rain at times, most of that towards the north and the west.

this is bbc news, the headlines: the world health organization has reported a record daily total of global coronavirus infections, and nowhere has been hit harder than america. the country's top health official for infectious diseases, now says some us states, should delay ending their lockdowns. now says some us states, should delay ending their lockdowns. arizona reported 65,000 coronavirus cases in a single day. president trump has commuted the 40—month prison sentence of his longtime ally roger stone. he was convicted of lying to congress, tampering with a witness and obstructing the house investigation into whether the trump campaign conspired with russia in the 2016 election. as face coverings become mandatory in shops in scotland, prime minister borisjohnson hints england could face similar measures. at the moment they're only mandatory on public transport, but the prime minister says the scientific advice on masks has shifted.